The Harris Family: Weekly Wrap Up: Spy School

Dun dun dun dun

That was my written rendition of the theme song for Mission Impossible, which was probably impossible to figure out.

But...this boy learned to tie his shoes this week. Not quite a mission impossible, but one he learned in a day! Once he sets his mind to it, he doesn't quit until he's accomplished the task.

He was so proud of himself! Another milestone met...another task he doesn't need my help with. It's kinda sad.

Sooooo....this week was Spy School. My kids are obsessed with Spy shows/movies and books. KC Undercover, Spy kids the movie, Heidie Hecklebeck and the Snoopy Spy, and The Boxcar Children Spy Game...just to name a few. Before our neighbors moved, all of the girls sat down and came up with a secret code so they would be able to communicate without the boys being able to read it. It was quite brilliant and very effective. Of course, they would always spy on each other and none of them thought the others knew where their secret hiding spot was, but they all knew....hence the spying.

When I was planning the school year and searching Pinterest for hours at a time, I came across a website where someone had put together a spy school for their kids. I originally thought our neighbors could participate in it too, but they sadly moved away. Although my kids weren't able to get to do this with their friends, they still had a great time and had tons of laughs.

On our first day of spy school we made our spy identification cards.

They had to write a message in "invisible ink" (lemon juice) to someone and that person had to go and decipher it. Once they put it under a hair dryer the message appeared, but you had to do it before the lemon juice dried.

While all of this was spy-ish and semi-fun, the real fun was when they got to go through the "invisible laser maze". That wasn't invisible...or laser...or a maze really...but it was fun.

Kristen was the fastest, all times. She moved very quickly and inspected the course prior to going through so she would know the best way to go.

Poor Lauren was the slowest. Her elbows kept hitting the string when she went through on her belly, so she decided to go through it on her back, which made her move as sssllloooowwww as a ssssllloooottthhhh.

And Dallas couldn't keep his backside down enough to make it through. He really needs to work on his military crawl.

The best part about this mission was the teamwork it promoted. Everyone helped everyone and wanted them to do their best....it was a good mom moment watching them be so helpful.

And while THAT was spy-ish and fun, the real fun part came when they made marshmallow shooters and shot each other as they completed the course. Now, my original marshmallow shooter was going to be made with a styrofoam cup and balloon, but that didn't work. Then we tried a red solo cup and a balloon and that didn't work. We ended up using toilet paper rolls and a balloon, but in the end it was more effective to just throw handfuls of marshmallows at each other.

Every time Dallas would pick one up, he would say, "Five second rule" and eat the marshmallows. They were on the floor for a lot longer than five seconds.

In the end, this is what my kitchen floor looked like. Actually, I think it was worse.

One thing I didn't take into consideration was the fact that these marshmallows would get trampled on, and even after mopping my floor, it was still sticky in spots. It required me going around with a magic eraser. Multiple times a day. For multiple days. My biggest pet peeve is sticky stuff on a floor. Eww.

On day two they had to walk a tightrope and stay on the tightrope, even though there were distractions. The distractions being things being thrown at them. I think they were all a little too happy for this mission.

Then....da da dum...we had a nerf gun war. I thought Lauren looked all cute with her bag, but then she started pulling extra bullets out when we had all fired ours. She basically let us waste all of our bullets, then she went to war on us before we could reload. Brilliant!

It's all fun and games until someone gets shot in the nose...accidently...by their mother...oops.

In the chaos, I snuck off and hid in Dallas' closet. They decided to to have a secret meeting in Dallas' room to figure out where I was. Lauren was supposed to check the closet and said she had. The only thing she did was jiggle the door handle like she was going to open it. So I knew exactly what they were planning and was planning a sneak attack of my own. Dallas kept yelling, "Mom, this is a nerf gun war not a nerf gun hide" and "if you don't come out you're disqualified". Lauren was hoping I wouldn't be found so she wouldn't have to do school. In the end, I did sneak attack them, but my aim was a little off causing our first wounding.

Day three brought disguises. Kristen had the best. Dallas was too cool to participate.

They also learned to dust for fingerprints.

And they had to unfreeze things using their "laser" beam. I froze marbles in ice cube trays and they used water squirters to unfreeze them.

Day four was the day they put their MacGyver skills to work and made magnifying glasses out of soda bottles.

They had no clue who MacGyver was, but they did a good job cutting out a circle from the curved end of a plastic soda bottle.

They then put a few drops of water on it, which made it magnify, and tried to find things in I Spy books.

We haven't finished Spy School. They still have one more day to go, and boy are they looking forward to that. Our Friday was a little busier than I was hoping it would be.

School this week was great. We've enjoyed our light load, but that changes on Tuesday. I'm anxious to see how our schedule will work.

We finished our book for August...Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I didn't realize it was a series. I'm hoping to watch the movie this week.